Aidan P. O’Connor is a member of the firm’s Litigation Department and the Co-Chair of its Criminal Defense Practice Group, concentrating on complex civil litigation, criminal defense and internal investigations, including securities fraud matters. Mr. O’Connor is a seasoned trial lawyer and has extensive experience in negotiating successful resolutions to difficult cases in both civil and criminal contexts. Mr. O’Connor was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey for 18 years, serving in the Criminal Division, the Organized Crime Strike Force and as the Chief of the Violent Crimes Unit. He was a recipient of the Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for his successful prosecution of a RICO case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in excise tax fraud and organized crime members.

Since his return to private practice, Mr. O’Connor has represented clients in state and federal courts, including a large international labor union in a civil case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and hundreds of thousands of workers, a defendant in a federal securities fraud and tax evasion case containing allegations of approximately two hundred million dollars of loss. Mr. O’Connor has handled civil cases involving tax appeals, civil RICO, trusts and estates, real estate, contract disputes, civil forfeiture and insurance issues. Criminal matters handled by Mr. O’Connor include allegations of securities fraud, insurance fraud, health care fraud, tax evasion, bank and mortgage fraud, public corruption, union corruption, assault, kidnapping, extortion, murder, kickback schemes, computer intrusions, embezzlement, sexual offenses, drug and controlled dangerous substance offenses, federal grand jury investigations and state parole violations in both state and federal court, as well as municipal court matters. Mr. O’Connor has also conducted internal investigations for private companies and public entities.

Mr. O’Connor has tried approximately 20 federal jury trials, argued hundreds of motions and conducted scores of hearings involving organized crime, tax fraud, money laundering, government program fraud, racketeering, alien smuggling, homicide, bank robbery, narcotics trafficking, civil rights and other offenses. Mr. O’Connor has conducted hundreds of federal prosecutions involving long and short term investigations, grand jury presentations, witness interviews, wiretapping and search warrants for offenses including organized crime, RICO, tax fraud and evasion, money laundering, theft of trade secrets, union corruption, embezzlement, commercial and insurance fraud, large stolen property rings, health care fraud, computer crimes, extortion, murder, robbery and kidnapping. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Aidan O’Connor was a litigation associate from 1986 to 1990 with Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York City, where he conducted or assisted in another half dozen civil trials involving banking and international maritime insurance in state and federal court. His commercial practice also included conducting depositions and discovery as well as drafting and arguing motions and appeals.

Mr. O’Connor has represented clients, conducted investigations and debriefed and presented at trial and other proceedings, witnesses in Spanish, Korean, Chinese (Fukinese, Mandarin and Cantonese), Thai, Turkish and Tigrinya.

Mr. O’Connor is a Trustee of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ).